Last night, I swear someone called me at 2:30am. I thought I knew who it was, but Alex has denied it and has an airtight alibi. Now, I wonder if I was dreaming. But I really think I answered the phone and talked to a guy, but I was half asleep.

"Hi!" they said.
"Hi. It's 2:30 in the morning," I said.
"Oh," they said.
"I have to work tomorrow morning," I added. Boy, did I ever have to work in the morning. Quite early. Was I even awake?

Then we said goodbye. I was sure it was Alex, as he is notorious for calling me late at night.

Now I just want to know who it was, as I'm sure I'd be happy to hear from them.

Thursday, June 19, 2003

Today at work, a girl I work with oh-so-helpfully directed me to "be more on the ball".

Ya. Thanks. Clearly, I was making mistakes on PURPOSE and that helpful hint put me on the right track. And thank GOD she said it in front of a customer. I mean, I hadn't been so mortified in front of a customer in... well, my LIFE, actually.

So now that I've been corrected that, in order to improve my performance, I need to find a ball and stand on top of it, I have a very clear idea of how to succeed as a coffee bar attendant. Now I can die happy.

Wednesday, June 18, 2003

I love the Salvation Army. I bought two new sweaters and a tank top for $10!
YAY for shopping! Yay for the Salvation Army. I finally have winter clothes that I can afford to just leave behind when I don't have enough room for them in my pack!

Our household (plus Femke's other Cdn friend, Susie) went out for thin-crust pizza at Arthur's Pizza in Darlinghurst. I'd heard it was some of the best pizza in Sydney. I was disappointed. It even had goat cheese and I was STILL disappointed! We had some lovely PepperTree Chardonnay, though.

Then we went to the Imperial Hotel next door, where Femke used to work. (It's actually a pub.) Had drinks there with my new housemate, Jim, telling me that I need to be less nice, more cutting. I'll work on it.

I also had to defend Toronto. Susie is from Vancouver and told everyone that Vancouverites are more active than Torontonians. I do NOT believe this is true. Of course, this is solely based on my biased, anecdotal evidence.

Now I'm looking for a new roommate as Femke is leaving for New Zealand on Sunday.
Know anyone who's looking to share a room in Sydney for two months?

Following an email from a good friend, I again realized how much I really do prefer that people be straight up with me.

Here's a tip: don't side-step the truth or tell me what you think I want to hear, or ignore it and hope the whole thing will go away. In the end, it's much better - much easier - to tell me the truth. Let me deal with it. I will get over it.

I detest it when people mislead me or don't tell me everything I need to know about a situation. Makes me feel like an idiot. Makes me feel played. There's a reason why I have trust issues.

Saturday, June 14, 2003

Andrea made me spaetzle, a special German dish, for dinner. It was VERY good. She made it in the traditional way, the way she says only grandmothers make it these days. Normally, she'd use a special machine to make it.

I will make it for my mom and dad when I get home, I think, just to show off how cool I am.

Andrea is the only person I know who likes food as much as me and Sarah (and my friend Michelle).

After dinner, she showed me where she's from. Plochingen, near Stuttgart. She was so excited. She was also very excited to see lots of recipes on the Web. She CLAIMS to be the best baker. I told her that Sarah and her should have a bake-off.

I told her about my special birthday cheesecake. She wants the recipe. She says "we don't have that at home." It's her famous saying. She just uses it as an excuse to try all the yummy things here.

Friday, June 13, 2003

I also sent a present, but of course it won't get there in time. It costs a LOT of money to send things overseas. WHEW!! Crazy. I really wanted to send something home from my Hunter Valley tour, but it's even MORE expensive to send that kind of thing home. Wow.

Thursday, June 12, 2003

Tonight, I saw Songket at The Studio theatre (the little theatre under the famous Opera House). Good play; not such great actors.

Even though I went by myself, it was nice because beforehand, my friend Andrea and I walked around Newtown (kind of like The Annex/Kensington area in Toronto) and had a lovely sushi dinner.

Andrea made me realize how fortunate and worldly I am. She first had sushi when she was in Australia for her first time when she was 25. She doesn't have Japanese restaurants in her hometown in Germany. So I explained the etiquette of eating Japanese and ordered for us as well. It was REALLY good Japanese food. Thanks to my coworker, Ben, for recommending Asakusa to us.

I'm dead tired. Last night I went out with Andrea and Sarah (from Calgary/Etobicoke) for Indian dinner. It was Sarah's last night in Sydney, so we were having a little goodbye celebration. Drank lots of wine and some of the Golden Tango liqueur I bought on my Hunter Valley Tour at the Golden Grape Estate. Probably drank too much of it. But it IS called "Love in a Bottle" for a reason.

Anyway, Sarah slept over as she had to be at Central Station to catch her bus VERY early. She got to sleep on a bus all day. I got to work at the Coffee Roaster at 8am.

Must get to bed. Working again tomorrow at the Coffee Roaster at 7:30am.
Need more sleep.

1. I missed Andy's birthday. Happy belated birthday to my sweet friend. He is now one year smoke-free.

2. Got a letter from my mom today. It had a picture of her beside the tulips in our garden at home, and a picture of my cat sitting inside my parents' woodstove. I miss him sooo much.

3. Was thinking of everyone today at yoga class. During the meditation at the end of class, the teacher said "Think of someone you love. Think of your heart and how full of love it is. Now think of all of that love spilling over to envelope all of those people you care about... think of the wonder of your family and friends and the love they give to you." I pictured my mom and dad, my sister, my brothers. Sarah, Jane, Andy, Alex, Tony... all of those people who have given me so much support lately. I literally gave them hugs in my head. I wonder if they felt that I was thinking of them. I was overcome with emotion. My heart IS full of love.

Monday, June 09, 2003

Saturday I worked a half day at Melograno then met up with my friends Andrea and Sarah (the girl from Canada that I met in the Blue Mountains who knows my brother, for goddessakes!).

We went to the Darling Harbour Jazz Festival and saw a fantastic Blue Brothers tribute as well as part of a swing concert. Met Andrea's friends that she's staying with here (in a suburb called Parramatta, where you can actually afford to live). They're also Canadian.

It got too cold and I was too tired to deal with it, so I got just a wee bit pouty and we went to Gloria Jeans for coffee and had a mini Canadian party. We talked about Canadian bands and how we hate when Aussies say "ta".

Andrea, Sarah and I walked back to my place for the party for my housemate Dong, who is leaving to go back to the Netherlands. We dranks chocolate martinis and then Andrea and Sarah went home... I kept going. Had a lovely talk with my Irish housemate, Noel (who was quite upset that I asked how to spell his name) and my soon-to-be-new-housemate, Jim (whom I mistakenly called Joe, which is his brother's name). Also chatted with a couple of friends from work who dropped by.

At 4:30am, the party was going strong, but I had to work the next morning, so I decided to go to bed. Well, that was until I walked into my room, turned on the closet light to discover that someone was doing bad things in there! I turned right around and walked out... I was so shocked! Noel and Jim were not surprised by my discovery. My closet, as I mentioned earlier, IS mirrored on 3 sides, including the ceiling. But Jim came with me to help me kick them out, as I did have to get to sleep. What a gentleman.

Worked at Melograno on Sunday and then came home to clean just a little before taking a short and well-deserved nap.... Our front gate was destroyed. Someone kicked it in. It's a splintered mess. We also had couch cushion innards all over our living room floor. I'm guessing it was all Ander's fault.

After my nap, I met up with Sarah and Scott (the guy she's staying with) down at Darling Harbour for more Jazz Festival (after stopping in at the Coffee Roaster for my skim latte FIRST, of course!). Scott went to work after the Bobby Gebert Trio finished their set. Sarah and I continued on to the main "Aquashell" which was a floating ampitheatre set up for the festival. We saw Monsieur Camembert's tribute to Louis Prima. It was absolutely outstanding. So sharp.

I got us yet another coffee from Gloria Jeans while we waited for the next concert; the "featured event". Renee Geyer and her band were good, I suppose. Not my favourite style of jazz. Much preferred Monsieur Camembert. Might buy a CD, except that I don't really want to carry it around when I travel again, since I won't have anything to PLAY it on.

After the last concert there was a fantastic fireworks display, set to jazz music, of course. It was a bit chaotic, but still quite impressive.

Sarah and I went to Scott's work for dinner. He's a waiter at an Italian pizza place that caters to American tourists. I had lamb pizza! It was good, but I have to admit that I like the pepperoni half better. I liked the chocolate mud cake that I had for dessert even more.

Sarah walked home with me, as she was staying over. We had to be at the Central YHA by 7:50am the next day and it only takes 10 minutes to walk there from my house (as opposed to an hour from Parramatta).

Today (holiday Monday), Sarah, Andrea and I did the Hunter Valley wine tour. It's the oldest wine region in Australia, although only a year older than the Barossa Valley. Our first tasting and tour of wine-making facilities was at the most beautiful vineyard, Iron Gate. Sarah bought a bottle of Semillon there. I wasn't so excited about their wines.

Then we visited the Golden Grape Estate, where I bought way too much liqueur (butterscotch, "Latina" and "love in a bottle"). We stopped for lunch near McGuigan's winery, and did tastings at the cheese factory (yummy goat cheese!) and fudge and chocolate companies. Finally, we did a tasting at Rothbury Estate, which had the best wine, I think. But I'd already spent enough money, so I didn't buy any.

On the way home, I was watching the beautiful scenery go by when I noticed a sign that said "This way Sydney; this way Toronto". No kidding. There's a town called Toronto here. I wish I'd gotten a photo of that.

Friday, June 06, 2003

Pub tour of The Rocks was quite good, though only 5 people on it. I won a prize for remembering that the tour guide had mentioned "socks" twice in his tour. Got a little drunk, as we had a drink in each place we visited; it's part of the tour package.

Learned much about the early days of Sydney when the harbour was a rough-and-tumble place.

Afterward, Andrea and I went to have dinner at The Observer Hotel (one of the historical pubs we'd visited) with fellow pub-tourists Charles and Robyn, from Florida. Quite well travelled for Americans. Then Andrea and I had a chat about relationships and walked the hour home with our bellies filled to the brim with too much good food.

After working my shift at the Coffee Roaster today, I went with Andrea (my German friend) to book our Hunter Valley wine tour for Monday. Then we hung out at Darling Harbour and I fell asleep in the sun.

Now I'm changing to go out on our pub tour of The Rocks, where the first fleet of Aussies settled.

Thursday, June 05, 2003

What a busy week it's been! Working every day, going to the gym, getting together with Andrea, the German girl I met in the Blue Mountains, cooking for my housemate (Ander), laundry, booking tickets for the new play at the Opera House, researching my next day trip to the Hunter Valley (wine region), doing some technical support out at Turramurra.

Monday, June 02, 2003

I'm back.

I know, I know: you missed me. You've been waiting with baited breath for me to get back. (Psst: back from the Blue Mountains where I went this weekend.)

Well, now your suffering is over... think of all the juicy things I have to tell you about! It'll all be in my journal ASAP. Along with more photos from my last film. I'll also try to take a picture of my with my NEW HAIRCUT, which is pretty exciting.

I work a LOT this week, but mercifully had today off. Good thing, since I got back from the Blue Mountains around 1am. Now back to the grind, as I'm off to my gym class.